The thin line between genius and insanity is less of a border than a union.

"Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish."--Pope John Paul II

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.-Albert Einstein

At last, a second contributor. Now the competition is sure to take off! Can you do an evil laugh and a high five?

"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens."("Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.")-- Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805)Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.-- Philip K DickOK, now let's look at four dimensions on the blackboard.-- Dr. JoyEnglish isn't much of a language for swearing. When I studied Ancient Greek I was delighted to discover a single word - Rhaphanidosthai - which translates roughly as "Be thou thrust up the fundament with a radish for adultery."

Cardinal Fang wrote:I've had a crack at a mad scientist one, test tubes and all:

***EDIT***

And an evil grin one

CF

Brilliant! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

It was about time someone else came up with some ideas! By the way, all the ones I have already attempted are up for re-interpretation too - I'll bet there are people here more than capable of improving on them!

"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens."("Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.")-- Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805)Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.-- Philip K DickOK, now let's look at four dimensions on the blackboard.-- Dr. JoyEnglish isn't much of a language for swearing. When I studied Ancient Greek I was delighted to discover a single word - Rhaphanidosthai - which translates roughly as "Be thou thrust up the fundament with a radish for adultery."

I guess it's just too much of a pet emotion-cartoony-expression for me, I expect everyone to have the image on the tip of their collective unconscious....

But I'll try to clarify.....*thinks*.......(as it were...)"exasperation".....plus pathos(nearly imperceptable)....plus desire-for-deliverance-from-the-stupidity-endured...plus clubby assumption of inclusion of viewer in secret world of those who "get it..

OK, the grinch cartoon was pretty seminal.He made Max that reindeer costume, dressed him, tied the amtler to his head, and Max promptly tipped over.... So he sawed off a piece...Still too heavy....Another piece...Another..Finally, the camera shows (evr-so-briefly) Max, no less enthused about the venture than at the start.(tail wagging manically, idiot-drooling grin, chest puffed, etc.)-But with a ridiculousy makeshift antler-stump on his head.(and slightly crooked, yet.

Pan rearward with camera, reins, yoke, sled, and back to the Grinch.

Pull focus in to a close up on his profile, as he turns to mug the camera, breaking the "fourth wall"

There. No animation...it is a moment frozen-in-time.(I think that's where you were stymied, tigger...you were playing with the animated gif feature, and off thinking 'bout stills.)poor grinchy...His shoulders slumped, outer-eye-corners heavy, his very skin seems to sag, ever-so-slightly.he is in 3/4 profile.There are sudden dark shadows 'neath his eyes.

...It is the world-weary look of the pained and earnest struggler,who has suffered yet another back-breaking straw to his sense ofjustice.And what at 16, or 25, or 30 years-of-age may have ended in a temper tantrum or bellow of outrage....Has been so sadly repetitious that it is now cause for merely a pathos-wading silent pleafor a "witness" to the undeniable apparency of the universal "plot" against him.

(Maybe the eye-stalks also microscopically bend rearward in a uniform curve-let, to suggest that the focus on the conversation with "other guy" has just been broken off, with an involuntary relaxing of the forward-angled attention-span-muscles, due to the refresher course in the futility of seeking from others simple understanding or even comprehension. )There is also an undertone of assumption that, just the other side of the "fourth-wall", there is a seperate world, of greater evolutionary development, where your efforts may be appreciated, could you only just make it there somehow.

simple.

It is a tricky task to draw a cartoon.(if I could do it, I'd be a millionaire.)

Only a few crudely represented features to work with, and if base emotions are tricky, complex ones like my "pet" require almost 'inspired genius' to convey.-(cartoonists who've made it big always manage to achieve that intuitive facility for emotion-conveyance, eh?...thinking waterson, trudeau.)

I think the key to this emoticon is subtlety....

I always try to show the details too "big", and it looks overblown and not at all like the emotion we all can feel, but not all can DRAW.(*damn the lack of talent in myself, I'd have all in the world I've ever wanted could I do this*)

Anyway, I picture myself doing this expression A LOT when I read some posts here.(I'll never te-ellll).(I always use my 2-foot-tall bear costume in my inner cartoon-world, btw, for the sake of being lovably adorable to the girls whilst I slay others with my silently conveyed scorn of their chances for redemption-through-understanding.)

(I tried the expression in my bathroom mirror, and as a human, I just looked pissed-off and slightly deranged.)

Hope this helps, may a more talented/software-blessed member than me pull it off.

I expected cap to jump on the bandwagon of support with this one.(I quit going to the 'serious' threads entirely...I always get hooked in by some outrageously stupid post, try to .....?, and almost immediately want to make that expression 'back' toward the 'thinking people' I'd just been 'hanging with', before my surprisingly unexpected folly.Poor cappy has to monitor them....)Don't ya want that emoticon to sum up your feelings for certain temporary members, mein fÜhress?

"The only freedom deserving the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest." - John Stuart Mill

How about one with one eyebrow cocked in amusement/curiosity, a la Mr Spock?

"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens."("Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.")-- Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805)Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.-- Philip K DickOK, now let's look at four dimensions on the blackboard.-- Dr. JoyEnglish isn't much of a language for swearing. When I studied Ancient Greek I was delighted to discover a single word - Rhaphanidosthai - which translates roughly as "Be thou thrust up the fundament with a radish for adultery."